In my last blog, I talked about Conquering life’s Hurdles. I said life’s hurdles conquer some people because they don’t know who they are. They are “in Christ”, “born again,” “have a new life,” but they have an identity crisis that robs them of the power they have within them.(Read August 10, 2011 blog for more on this step to conquering life’s hurdles.)
Today, I want to continue dealing with conquering life’s hurdles because being robbed of our identity is not the only reason life’s hurdles are defeating many of us.
I told you in the blog last week that I could run track. When I first started running, my coach would give me advice, different techniques, which he thought would make me a better runner. But I wouldn’t listen to him. I said to myself “I was the fastest guy in my neighborhood. I am fast now. And I don’t need his help.”
When we ran our first track meet, I lost terribly. My coach, the weeks after that, continued to give me advice. And I continued to refuse. And I continued to lose.
Life’s hurdles—the trials, hardships, suffering, distress—defeat us because we won’t let others help us. We figure, we don’t need anyone’s help. We are strong, independent, private. “I want to handle my problems on my own. I don’t want anyone in my business.” So, this self-reliant attitude is what keeps many of us from jumping over our hurdles and crossing life’s finish line as winners.
How do we deal with this—this attitude of self reliance? How do we deal with conquering life’s hurdles? One man was asked how he dealt with life and replied “Some people say the glass is half full; some people say the glass is half empty. I say ‘Are you gonna drink that?’”
Either learn to jump over life’s hurdles or fall over them. How do we jump over them, conquer them, attack life’s hurdles, in a Christian way, and win?
In my first blog, I gave you one way. Today, I want to give you another way that you can jump over life’s hurdles and cross the finish-line a winner. You may be winded a bit, sweaty and sticky from running and jumping—but you will be a winner, if you do what Blind Bartimaeus does.
Mark 10: 49. Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”
There is something I want you to notice in the verse before verse 49: these people that are now calling Bartimaeus to come to Jesus are the same ones who were just telling him to shut-up. Verse 48 says [Bartimaeus] cried out loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many were sternly telling him to keep his peace. “
The ones now calling Bartimaeus to come to Jesus were the same ones who told him to “Be quiet! Jesus doesn’t want to hear from you.” That tells me what? When Jesus speaks, even your enemies will cooperation; even your enemies will make things go right for you.
Bartimaeus didn’t have to call out to Jesus. He could have just stayed the way he was. But to conquer his hurdles, he needed somebody else’s help. He knew he couldn’t do it alone. He knew he needed somebody else’s assistance.
Recently, I read a story about Rahn Sheffield. In that story, he says, “A lot of people I went to school with, a lot of my friends, either passed away because of violence or are in jail.” He mentions two specific stories that stick out for me. The year was 1981, and Rahn was a senior at San Diego State University, majoring in industrial arts.
It was late at night, and the 24-year-old Rahn was writing a letter to a friend when he received a phone call from his mother Dolores in Long Beach. It was one of those calls that still remain in Rahn's memory.
“My mother called me, and she just started crying for no reason,” he said. "No reason at all.” She said, “Rahn, I think something is wrong.” And, according to Rahn, when his mother thinks something is wrong, that means something is wrong. The family was concerned about the whereabouts of Rahn’s older brother.
"Then later that night, my mother called back and just said, 'Ronnie.'” That's when Rahn knew. She didn't have to say anything. She just cried. Rahn's 28-year-old brother Daryl, a college-educated technical illustrator, was riding the bus to work when he was randomly robbed, shot and killed.
To Rahn, this experience was another painful hurdle he had to overcome. Many people might have crumbled after losing an older brother in such a horrifying fashion. Not Rahn. Death was nothing new to Rahn, who grew up on the gang-, drug- and gun-infested streets of Los Angeles.
Rahn recalls one friend who used to wield a double-barrel shot gun; he knew others who were involved with gangs and others with drugs, too. This was the environment Rahn grew up in. He attended Crenshaw High School, a school many referred to as Fort Crenshaw because it was so violent.
We have too many of our young people killing each other over foolishness—rings and watches and chains and dogs—foolishness. God created us to create life not to destroy life. We don’t change the situation through violence. The thing we need to understand about life is that it cannot be better until we are better; we cannot get more until we are more.
Rahn attended Crenshaw High School with many people who either died because they destroyed their lives or someone destroyed their lives for them. There were gangs everywhere. And many sought to change violence with violence.
While Rahn hung out with a rough crowd, he never joined a gang. Jim Brown wouldn't let him. On the surface, Brown was Rahn's high school track and football coach, a surrogate father figure at a deeper level. “He took me under his wing,” Rahn said of Brown. “He told me, 'Why don't you stop running from the police and start running for me?’”
On the weekends, Brown would take Rahn to his home and make him do work such as gardening or mowing the lawn to occupy him so he would stay out of trouble. Rahn despised it at the time, but now he looks back on the experience as something that disciplined him.
But as an African-American male growing up without a father in Los Angeles, the odds were against Rahn. This was evident from a recent encounter with an acquaintance who lived in the apartment above Rahn in Los Angeles.
"When I saw the lady,” she said, “Are you Rahn?” And he said, “Yeah.” Then she said, “I thought you'd be dead by now.” Rahn said laughing, “You don't realize how far you've come until you hear something like that (I don’t know about you, but I know the feeling).
Remember that friend with the double-barreled shot gun? He's now in prison after killing somebody with that same gun. Rahn is now in his fifth season as the Aztecs' head track coach. The only killings involved in Rahn's life are the opponents that run against his teams.
Rahn said, “The reason I'm here is because people made a difference in my life,” Rahn said. “My mother made a difference. My brother made a difference. Jim Brown made a difference. And why did they make a difference in my life? I let them. Now I want to make a difference in other people's lives."
That’s it, isn’t it? That's what we need to understand if we are going to conquer life’s hurdles: we have to be willing to let others help us; we have to be willing to let someone else make a difference in our lives. Because some of us think we can handle life all by ourselves, we have people all over the world who are failures. “Nobody is going to do anything for me…I’m self-made.” In Dr. Gardner C. Taylor’s words, “I don’t think I want to see a self-made person. We do badly enough when we have been made by two people.”
You can get over your hurdles, but you are going to have to be willing to let someone else help you. If you don’t do anything, but call somebody on the phone and say, “Pray for me.” Then do that. But let somebody help you.
If you don’t do anything, but go to your pastor, if you have one, if don’t, get one, and say “Pastor, put me on the church’s pray list.” Then do that. But let somebody help you.
If you don’t do anything, but sit down and talk to someone else—a friend, a relative, a teacher, a counselor… Then do that. But let somebody help you… Isn’t that what helped Blind Bartimaeus? He cried out “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stood still and said, “Come here, Bartimaeus…”
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